


^ a,AAAA.'(X-K^ , 1 T K. 







Book__.6Ao 



Legal and Political Disabilitii 



SPEECH 



HOI. ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 



V ^ 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 31, 1872. ^^ "? 



Tlie Senate having under consideration the bill 
(II. R. No. 380) for the removal of legal and political 
disabilities imposed by the third section of the four- 
teenth article of amendments to the Constitution 
of the United States- 
Mr. CHANDLER said: 
Mr. President: I accept the lecture we 
received yesterduy from the honorable Sena- 
tor from Missouri [Mr. Schurz] on statesman- 
ship with great humility, and I am sure if my 
honorable friend from Nevada [Mr. Nye] had 
remembered the facts in the case he would 
not have taken exception to anything that my 
friend from Missouri had said. For his states- 
manship I have ever bad the most profound 
respect. When it is remembered that the hon- 
orable Senator revolutionized all Germany, 
and having demolished the kingdoms of Ger- 
many established that great rej)ublic which 
has been the admiration of the world for nearly 
a quarter of a century, [laughter,] who can 
bring his statesmanship in compeliiion with 
that of the honorable Senator? 

Then, again, I have great respect for the 
honorable Senator, because wheti he comes 
liere lie brings, like the harvester, his sheaves 
with him. He desired a liberal Republican- 
ism in the State of Missouri, and he comes 
upon the floor with a large sheaf, to wit, his 
colleague, as proof of the liberalism of his 
Republicanism. And, sir, I have for his Re- 
publicanism a profound respect, because he 
brings that sheaf with him. I therefore will 
not discuss the question of statesmansliip with 
the honorable Senator from Missouri, but, as 
I said before, I accept his a.ssertion with such 



humility as I am capable of. I differ from 
him, but of course I must be wrong, because 
he says sq. 

Mr. President, the Senator from Missouri 
has advocated on this floor universal amnesty. 
What is amnesty? If I understand it, and 
I think I do to some considerable extent 
amnesty is a boon, given for a consideration. 
You do not amnesty a man who has not com- 
mitted a crime; you do not amnesty a man 
whose skirts are clean ; you amnesty a crim- 
inal. If you grant that boon, to wit, amnesty, 
are you iu)t entitled to place a condition upon 
that boon? 

hi this case what is the condition that we 
impose for this boon? If these infamies which 
exist in the South must be unfolded, it is as well 
that I should ht.ve the unpleasant task imposed 
upon me of rtferringto themas any other man. 
I have been compelled for more 'than a year 
to listen to stories of wrong and outrage that 
would make the blood in the veins of any loyal 
or humane man tingle with horror. I have 
seen the victims who have been outraged. 
Why, sir, the colonel of one of our Michigan 
regiments, and an officer of this Government, 
was taken out by Ku Klux wretches and one 
hundred stripes inflicted upon him, ami when 
I saw him he could hardly mpve, because his 
wounds were not yet healed. 'Murders innum- 
erable, for they are counted by thousands, 
outrages innumerable, for they are counted by 
more tlian tens of thousands, have been per- 
petrated by these wretches in the night time. 
And now we demand what? We demand of 



these men simply, "Stop killing, and then we 
will amnesty you ;" "Stop whipping, and then 
we will amnesty you ;" "Stop these outrages, 
and then we will amnesty you." Is our demand 
unjust or unreasonable? 

Mr. President, the men who are banded 
together perpetrating in the night-time, and 
almost every night, unheard-of and untold 
atrocities, are the very men who seven years 
ago were in the rebel army. You cannot find 
a man of them who did not wear the rebel 
gray during the rebellion, and to-day they 
wear the Ku Klux dress and badges, and are 
the rebel army in a different uniform. 

Sir, we have amnestied every man who has 
shown the least sign or symptom of repent- 
ance. We have amnestied every man who 
has come forward and even asked to be am- 
nestied. Who are these men that are now to 
have amnesty forced upon them? To a very 
considerable extent they are the very mem- 
bers of this Ku Klux organization ; and what 
is the credit that we shall receive after the 
thing has been done? Why, sir, that you 
dared not refuse it another hour. They will 
say, "You refused it to us as long as you 
dared, and now that you dare not refuse us 
another hour, you grant it to us grudgingly." 
Sir, if I ever did vote amnesty to an unrepent- 
ant rebel I hope God may forgive me, but I 
shall never forgive m3-self. 

The Senator from Missouri said, "You, Sen- 
ators, have amnestied one and have voted him 
into a high office." So we did ; but that man 
showed the very highest possible evidence that 
he had repetited of his sins and was a loyal 
citizen. What was that evidence? He joined 
the Republican party, and there is no higher 
evidence than that. He joined the party that 
put down this rebellion, and he has been true 
and faithful ever since. I repeat, it is the very 
highest evidence that can be offered on this 
floor or anywhere else of repentance on the 
part of a rebel, that he has joined the lo3'al 
Republican party. 

Have these other rebels shown any such 
symptoms of repentance? Is there any evi- 
dence that any single one of the men upon 
■whom we are going to force amnesty against 
their will and wishes, men who will not even 
Esk us to grant the boon, has repented of his 



sins and has become a loyal man ? No, sir. 
On the contrary, the evidence is glaring that 
not only are they unrepentant rebels, but that 
they are as bitter rebels as they were when 
they wore the rebel gray with muskets pointed 
at the loyal heart of this nation. 

Mr. President, I cannot vote this boon in 
advance of a demand for it, and I never will. 
The very moment that these rebels show that 
they have repented, that they have become 
loyal, law-abiding citizens, that moment I will 
vote them amnesty; but, until they do show 
that they have repented of their rebellion, I 
never will vote them amnesty. 

Sir, it is not amnesty that they require. 
These men are criminals who are to-day 
prisoners of war, unless the President's proc- 
lamation that the war was ended may have 
relieved them. We to-day hold the parole 
of every man of them as a prisoner of war, 
and they are liable under the laws of war 
unless the President's proclamation has re- 
lieved them, the very moment they violate 
that parole, to be taken out and shot under 
martial law; and I should like to see a few of 
them treated as prisoners of v/ar. It would 
do more good than amnesty to take a hundred 
or two of them out some morning and dispose 
of them in that way. What they need is the 
strong hand of power to punish them for their 
crimes.' It is true that we have sent some 
sixty or seventy of them to State's prison, but 
that is not what they need. They need what 
they are inflicting upon their poor innocent 
loyal neighbors; they need a stronger, harsher 
treatment than they have received in the 
courts. I do not say that the proclamation of 
the President may not have relieved them 
from their positions as prisioners of war, but 
unless that proclamation has thus relieved 
them, every single man of them is liable to be 
brought before a military court-martial to- 
moKTow and shot for a violation of his parole. 

I have never been in very great haste to 
grant either amnesty or rights to the men who 
rebelled against the Government. When they 
took up arms against this Government, they 
forfeited every right, and when they laid down 
their arms they admitted that they had for- 
feited every right. They simply asked, not 
amnesty, not the protection of their property, 



but that we in our magnanimity would grant 
-' them their miserable lives. That is all they 
askgd. They made no further demand than 
that, that their lives might be spared, and they 
would have been perfectly content with that. 
But, sir, in addition to their lives, we gave 
them their property, and in addition to their 
property we have given a large majority of them 
amnesty, and now you propose to come in and 
give amnesty to the rest, not as a right, for 
every right was forfeited, but as a boon, and a 
boon for what? 

Sir, I will not go over the history of the 
wrongs and outrages that will be spread be- 
fore you in two or three days by the chairman 
of the Ku Klux Committee; but if any man 
desires to see sustained every assertion that I 
have made, and see more than sustained every 
utterance that has been made by the news- 
paper press, he has only to look over the evi- 
dence taken before that Ku Klux Committee, 
and more than all that has been said will be 
sustained. 

Mr. President, by some means or other, 
and I can hardly tell how, civil service reform 
has been dragged into this discussion upon 
amnesty. I do not very well understand what 
business it has here, but it has been here over 
and over and over again, and I may as well 
make an allusion to it as I go along. 

I am in favor of every effective reform that 
can be made in the civil service, and I am in 
favor of the most searching investigation to 
find out where reforms can be made. But the 
other morning I was going to show that some 
reforms had been made when the expiration of 
the morning hour interrupted me, and I was 
prevented. That I believe was upon another 
bill ; but that makes no difference. Civil ser- 
vice reform has been here, and I may as well 
say now what I meant to say then. I then said 
that civil service reform had been going on for 
the last ten or eleven years, and very effectively 
going on. I stated that when the rebellion 
broke out nearly every officer under this Gov- 
ernment was a traitor to his country; certainly 
more than nine tenths of all the officeholders 
in the District of Columbia were rebels against 
the Government. We went to work to reform 
every one of those rebels out of office, and we 
reformed loyal and faithful men into office in 



their places. That was our first civil service 
reform. 

Then, as I said before, Mr. Johnson, hav- 
ing turned "liberal Republican"— I believe 
that is the name now, but we always used 
to call them Democrats— Mr. Johnson, hav- 
ing turned "liberal Eepublican," found it 
extremely difficult to procure honest, compe- 
tent, faithful men who would even profess to 
be Johnson men. In consequence of that, he 
was obliged to a very considerable extent to 
fill his offices with incompetent men, and 
in many cases men not of the highest char- 
acter. We have reformed all of Johnson's 
incompetent nominees out of office and 
have reformed honest men into office in their 
places. 

Then, in addition to that, early in this Ad- 
ministration a good many Senators, and a good 
many members of the House of Representa- 
tives, and a good many members of the press, 
recommended the appointment of improper 
men to office, and it was utterly impossible 
that the President should know all these men. 
There is one instance of an editor, who I be- 
lieve now belongs to the reform party, who 
recommended several very improper men to 
office; they proved to be thieves; and every 
one of them that has been proven to be 
a thief has been reformed out of office and 
reformed into the penitentiary. Then a good 
many more, some recommended by members 
of this body, when they found that this reform 
was going on, reformed themselves into for- 
eign lands, where they were beyend the reach 
of the United States courts, and remain there 
yet in disgrace ; and a good many more, where 
the proof was not sufficient to convict them, 
and yet where the moral conviction was so 
strong that they could not be retained in 
office, have been reformed out of office and 
are now in disgrace in this land, and in every 
instance where it could be done competent 
and honest men have been put in their places. 
These reforms have been going on daily and 
hourly ever since President Grant's inaugura- 
tion, and they have been very effective in their 
results. It is my sincere belief that we never 
had so honest or so efficient a civil service 
under this Government as we have to-day; 
andyet undoubtedly other reforms can be made • 



and will be made. Wherever an abuse is 
pointed out to this Administration, that abuse 
is immediately remedied, and wherever abuses 
are found they will continue to be remedied. 
Our Saviour must have been a pretty good 
judge of human nature ; and yet among His 
chosen twelve there was one Judas, and 
from the days of our Saviour down to the 
present time I suppose the average has been 
about the same as with His chosen friends, 
about one in twelve. I think if you study the 
Scriptures you will make up your mind that 
our Saviour brought about Him the general 
average of honesty and dishonesty ; and it 
makes no difference whether in this body or 
in the House of Representatives, or somewhere 
else, you will 6nd about one Judas out of 
twelve. Until the millennium comes we must 
expect here and there to find a man who can- 
not resist great temptation. I believe that 
this Administration has used every possible 
effort to find the "twelfth man," and when- 
ever found they "made a note of ir," and 
turned him out and put a faithful public ser- 
vant in his place. Such is the Republican 
policy. We punish our thieves; the Demo- 
crats reward theirs. 

Now, with regard to the present civil ser- 
vice reform, I will not go into an investigation 
of that, because this is neither the time nor the 
place. When the time comes I shall. I am in 
favor of reforming out every incompetent man ; 
I am in favor of reforming out every dishonest 
man, and of reforming good men into their 
places. But, sir, whether this comnetitive 
examination which is now talked of is going 
to accomplish that or not, I cannot say. My 
judgment would be that it would require some- 
thing a little different from that competitive 
examination to carry out the mucli-talked-of 
civil service reform to its very best re- 
sults. 

So much by the way for "civil service." 
The honorable Senator from Delaware [Mr. 
Saulsbuby] yesterday — and I am sorry I have 
not his speech before me; it is not in the 
Globe this morning — made a speech comparing 
the Democratic party with the Republican 
party, and drawing a contrast that was not 
particularly favorable to the Republican party. 
• I propose to carry out the parallel between the 



two parties a little further than he did. It is 
a parallel that 1 think should be held up before 
this nation. It is a parallel that the young 
men of the nation now coming upon the stage 
of life should examine, and I for one shall 
never refuse to make that comparison, either 
on this floor or anywhere else. I like to draw 
it on the stump as well as I do here. It is a 
parallel that I have been in the habit of draw- 
ing for a long time. 

The Senator from Delaware discovered that 
in the good old days of Democracy we had 
specie payments ; in the good old days of 
Democracy we had lighter taxation; in the 
good old days of Democracy our commerce 
was more thriving than it is to-day; and in 
that same parallel he discovered that the 
Republican party was responsible for this 
increased taxation, and for this destruction of 
our commerce. 

Sir, has my honorable friend from Delaware 
forgotten that we have had a rebellion since 
the Republican party came into power? Has 
my honorable friend from Delaware never 
heard of the Alabama and her colleagues, that 
sailed all over the ocean destroying, wherever 
they found it, what lay under the American 
flag? Does my honorable friend from Dela- 
ware know that the Alabama was commanded 
by that eminent Democratic politician, Admi- 
ral Semmes, of the confederate navy, now a 
leading Democratic editor in the Democratic 
South ? Has my honorable friend ever learned 
that the Republican party had an enormous 
work to do after it came into power? Has my 
honorable friend ever heard what the first mis- 
sion of the great Republican party was after 
it came into power under this Government? 
Mr. President, it is a very common thing to 
hear these " liberal Republicans" of the An- 
drew Johnson stripe — 1 think that is the name 
they went by under Andrew Johnson — con- 
demning the action of this Government. A 
very common thing it is and has been for them, 
and they are very much in the habit of saying 
that the mission of the old Republican party 
is ended, and that they, the liberal Republicans, 
are coming into power. Mr. President, let us 
look for a moment and see what the old Repub- 
lican party has done, is doing, and means to 
accomplish, before we adopt the liberal Repub- 



lican platform with Vice President Blair at 
its head. 

As soon as this great Republican party came 
into power in the other House, though not in 
this House, when it simply controlled one 
single branch of this Government, and that 
only by a very meager majority, the very first 
act, the very first tiling that it had to do was 
to prevent all the vast Territories of the United 
States being given over to the blighting curse 
of human slavery. When the Democracy had 
a majority in this body of more than two to 
one, and we held the other House by a smaller 
majority, on this floor only three Democrats 
went with the twenty Republicans to prevent 
this enormous wrong and outrage upon the 
free people of the United States. Democracy 
broke down the wall of separation between 
freedom and slavery, and demanded that the 
whole of the Territories of the United States 
should be given over, bound hand and foot, 
to the blighting curse of slavery ; and- the 
first act, the first part of the mission of this 
great Republican party, was to rescue those 
vast Territories from this curse of slavery. Mr. 
President, we did it after a prolonged and 
terrible struggle. 

You fill remember the Lecompton constitu- 
tion, and the terrific conflict we had over it; | 
but we accomplished that part of our mission,' I 
and we saved from the bligiit of slavery our 
great Territories, large enough to create half a 
dozen European empires. 

The next part of the mission of this great 
Republican party was to put down and over- 
throw a Democratic rebellion against this Gov- 
ernment, and that was thrust upon us, forced 
upon us before we had been in power one month 
and twenty days, by the firing upon Fort Sum- 
ter. It had been threatened for years ; it was 
threatened while we were saving the Territories 
from the curse of slavery; it was threatened 
upon every measure that displeased the South, 
either in this body or in the other ; but there were 
few who believed the South would ever attempt 
so reckless and foolish a thing as the overthrow 
of this Government. But they undertook it; 
and here permit me to say that this was not 
a southern rebellion alone. If the northern 
Democrats had not ofifered aid and comfort and 
assistance to their southern brother Democrats 



not a gun would ever have been fired at our 
flag. The whole Democratic party of this 
nation is responsible for that rebellion, and 
the world and all history will hold them to 
that responsibility. I am not surprised at all 
that the Democratic party desires to blot out 
Its record and the record of the past. 

But let us look a little further into' this. The 
honorable Senator from Delaware says that we 
had specie payments when the Republican party 
came into power. Yes, sir, so we had, and we 
had until we had been fighting this Democratic 
rebeiuon for more than six months. What was 
the condition of the country when Mr. Lincoln 
was elected President of the United States? 
The credit of the United States stood higher 
than the credit of any other Government on the 
face of the earth. Our bonds were higher in the 
markets of the world six months before Mr. 
Lincoln's inauguration than the bonds of any 
other Government, and the Treasury was pleth- 
oric But after the firing upon Fort Sumter 
our loyal Government was compelled to borrow 
almost fabulous sums to put down this Demo- 
cratic rebellion. It was obliged to borrow 
these sums to chase the Democratic cruisers all 
over the waters of the earth that were trying to 
destroy our commerce and that did destroy it. 
Fabulous sums we were obliged to borrow to 
carry on the war against the Democratic party. 
I We borrowed, and as long as the gold in this 
nation was sufficient to enable us to pay our 
I armies to carry on the war so long we con 
tinned to pay specie on demand ; but afier the 
banks had loaned us $150,000,000 in gold, with 
which we paid every dollar of expense during 
the first si.K months of the war, the gold in the 
country was exhausted, and then we were driven 
to the absolute necessity of issuing paper 
money or giving up the contest. Would my 
honorable friend from Delaware have given up 
the contest and allowed this great nation to be 
divided ; or would he have resorted to paper 
money or to anything else to put down this 
Democratic war? 

Mr. President, I will not go over the history 
of the war, but I will say this : that through- 
out the whole of it the sympathy of the Demo- 
cratic organization, (I do not say of all Demo- 
crats by any mfiuner of means, because .there 
were remarkable examples of devotion to the 



6 



country on the part of Democrats, but the 
sympathy of the Democratic organization, as 
a political organization, from the time the first 
gun was fired until the surrender at Appo- 
mattox,) was with the rebels, and that very 
sympathy furnished them aid and comfort from 
the beginning until the end of the war, aid 
and comfort that they required, or they would 
have thi'own down their arms months and 
perhaps years before they did. Hence, I say 
that the Democratic party is responsible for 
the continuance of the war. In their State 
conventions and national conventions and all 
their political organizations, wherever held, no 
matter whether in Michigan, Ohio, Vermont, 
or South Carolina, it made no difference, 
there the Democratic party expressed sym- 
pathy with the rebellion, and resolved only a 
few months before the final surrender at Appo- 
mattox that the war was a failure, and that 
peace ought immediately to be restored. How 
could you restore peace with defiant rebels in 
arms against your Government except by a 
vile surrender and the loss of your Govern- 
ment? Who ever believed that there was a 
chance for peace upon any other terms than 
an unconditional surrender to the demands of 
the South. And that is just what these Demo- 
crats meant throughout. 

We have listened here during the fifty days 
we have been in session to a great many con- 
stitutional arguments showing our constitu- 
tional duties. Mr. President, [Mr. Anthony 
in the chair,] those arguments must sound 
very familiar to you and me. They do to me. 
You and I both sat here and listenened to a 
better constitutional argument from Jeff. Davis 
five minutes before he left this body than has 
been delivered by these constitutional advo- 
cates since the commencement of this session. 
Robert Toombs delivered a better constitutional 
argument than has been delivered here this 
session. Those arguments were in the same 
vein and strain as we hear now. It sounds 
very familiar to hear these old Democratic 
speeches. I contend that we have not only 
stood by the Constitution, but that we have 
saved the Constitution, all there is left of it. 
You and your party would have overthrown 
the Government, and in so doing you would 
have overthrown the Constitution ; and every 



shred of it that is left you owe to us, and you 
ought to get down on your knees and thank 
us for saving what we did. I do not much 
like to be lectured upon my constitutional 
duties from that source. I recognize my con- 
stitutional obligations, and I recognize yours. 

But, Mr. President, our mission did not end 
with the putting down of the rebellion, nor 
did we cease our eflTorts for the public good 
during the continuance of the rebellion. The 
mission of this great Republican party was a 
wonderful mission. We not only had to save 
the vast Territories of the nation from slavery, 
and to put down a Democratic rebellion, but 
we had to pass certain great measures for' the 
benefit of this Union, and we have done it. 

That beneficent measure known as the agri- 
cultural college land act was the work of this 
great Republican party, that has established 
agricultural colleges in almost every State in 
this Qnion, and which, I trust, will establish 
such a college in every State. That was a 
part of the mission of this great Republican 
party, and it performed it, and performed it 
well. 

Another part of the mission of this great 
Republican party was the homestead law, giv- 
ing a farm to the man who cultivates the soil, 
saying to every people and nation imder 
heaven, "Send your laboring men here and 
we will allow them to take an interest in the 
soil by siiijply paying the actual cost of sur- 
vey." This was a part of the mission of the 
Republican party, and we have performed it, 
and performed it well. 

Then, again, the great national banking 
system, the best the world has ever seen, or 
perhaps ever will see, a system that, in my 
humble judgment, will be adopted by every 
commercial nation under heaven before ten 
years shall have rolled around — the plan of 
issuing a currency based upon the obligations 
of the Government, that is good in every nook 
and corner of the laijd — was a part of the mis- 
sion of this Republican party. Prior to that 
every State issued its bank notes at its own 
good will and pleasure, and bank bills that 
were good in Michigan were not worth the 
paper on which they were printed in Florida, 
and those issued upon the Atlantic coast were 
worth less than nothing at the Pacific. Sir, 



we have established a currency so uniform that 
from Alaska to Texas there is not one fourth 
of one per cent, difference in its value; and 
from Maine to Texas there is not the difference 
of one eighth of one per cent.:. a currency so 
absolutely good that if a bank fails the value 
of its notes rather appreciates than depreciates 
in consequence of that failure. The desire 
has been — it is not so now — so great to obtain 
the privilege of starting banks that men have 
actually paid a premium for broken bank notes 
in order that they might establish banks in 
their sections of the country. This great 
beneficent banking system was one of the 
missions of this great Republican party, of 
v/hich I am proud, and of which I intend to 
boast a little. 

Another mission of this party, and one which 
I ought perhaps to have brought in at an 
earlier portion of my remarks, was this: we 
found four million slaves in this land of lib- 
erty — a foul blot upon our escutcheon in the 
eyes of all the world. I have had it thrown 
in my face a thousand times by people of for- 
eign Governments, "You profess to be the 
freest Government on earth, and yet you have 
four million men in absolute and degrading 
bondage. " It was a blot that no man on this 
floor could excuse or defend. We said that 
we had no responsibility for it; that it was a 
State institution ; but we never could make a 
foreigner understand that this great-nation had 
not power to do away with so mighty a wrong. 
It was a part of the mission of the Republican 
party to strike off the shackles from those four 
million slaves, and make them men. It was a 
slow process. I remember that the first lime 
we enacted that a colored individual might sit 
in that gallery it created more tumult than 
all that has been made by the "liberal Repub- 
licans" within the last three months. It fairly 
raised a howl of rage all through the streets 
of this capital, that wc would permit a colored 
individual to come and take a seat in this 
gallery ! Well, sir, it was one step, and we 
took it. 

The next step was more terrific in its results. 
We finally decided to take colored troops into 
our Army, and then the whole Democratic camp 
was in as terrific a slate of confusion as a bum- 



blebee's nest would be with a hot iron in it. 
[Laughter.] Never did I see such an absolute 
horror created as was created by that re.^olution 
to take colored troops into the pay of the Gov- 
ernment. I went home and was obliged to meet 
this on the stump ; it was thrown in my face 
everywhere, and I told my Democratic friends 
at home that in my humble judgment a black 
man was good enough to shoot a rebel, but; 
that if there was any Democrat there who was 
so anxious to get into the Army, and had been 
crowded out by a black man, I would agree to 
take the black man out and let the Democrat 
in. Well, sir, I never had to take a single 
black man out. [Laughter.] Democrats were 
not anxious to get in, but they were exceed- 
ingly anxious to put all the white Republicans 
in, keeping the black men out. We took black 
men into the Armj', and after they had fought 
gallantly against the Democratic rebellion, 
we were obliged to strike off their shackles, 
and we did it. For that act the responsibility 
is on the Republican party, and it is a thing 
that will go down in history, its chiefest crown 
of glory through all time. 

Mr. President, the Democrats have no re- 
sponsibility for that act ; not one of ihetn voted 
for it; not one of them favored it; and now 
they want these black men to vote with them; 
and what is the process they pursue to make 
Democrats of them? They whip them until 
they promise to vote the Democratic ticket, 
and then if they do noi vote it they kill ihem. 
Tliat is the Democratic argument! 

I am ready at all times to discuss this par- 
allel with the Democratic party here or else- 
where — always glad to have it bro^ight up. It 
always furnishes me pleasure to enter into this 
discussion ; but I have not quite got through 
with the mission of the great Republican party. 
The next part of the mission of this Repub- 
lican part}' wa.s to prevent the repudiation of 
the public debt after our armies had conquered 
the rebellion. In one Slate, Democrats recom- 
mended paying it in greenbacks; in another 
State they recommended paying the interest 
for a little while; and in another State they 
advocated absolute repudiatioir; but nowhere, 
in no State, did the Democratic party as an 
organization stand up for an honest, faithful, 



8 



honorable payment of that debt. It was for 
repudiation in some shape or other; and 
we, the Republican party, had it as a part of 
our mission to save the national honor from 
being disgraced by this Democratic party, and 
we have done it. 

Mr. President, we did more; but I will come 
to that in a few moments. We not only saved 
the national credit from dishonor, but we raised 
it from the very dust of humiliation, until it 
stands to-day on a proud eminence before the 
•world. That is our work. No thanks to you, 
gentlemen. You did your best to discredit the 
nation, but you failed ; and now you arraign 
us, do you ? We plead not guilty to your 
arraignment, join issue, and bring you to trial. 

The next step in the mission of this great 
Republican party was reconstruction. I will 
not weary the Senate with all the points in the 
mission of this party. I am only bringing out 
a few salient points to which I mean to call 
the attention of the Senate, and I want to 
keep them in perpetual remembrance. The 
next part of the mission of the Republican 
party was the reconstruction of these rebel 
States. I confess that I was not in as great a 
hurry as some were for that reconstruction. I 
could have waited a little longer for that act 
to be consummated, but after all I went with 
the Republican party in pressing it because I 
would not stand out from my associates. I 
repeat, however, I could have waited a little 
longer any day that we passed any reconstruc- 
tion law. 

But, sir, you will remember very well that 
Mr. Johnson conceived a plan of his own for 
reconstructing these rebel States, and he un- 
dertook to force his plan of reconstruction 
over Congress. He adopted a system of pro- 
visional governments. Mr. Johnson knew as 
well as you or I did that he had no right to 
appoint a provisional governor. Mr. Johnson 
knew perfectly well that when he was appointed 
Governor of Tennessee the very first act of 
President Lincoln was to send his name before 
the Senate as a brigadier general in the Amer- 
ican Army, and Brigadier General Andrew 
Johnson went to Tennessee as military gov- 
ernor, and not as provisional governor. Presi- 
dent Lincoln had a perfect right to appoint 



any man a brigadier general in the American 
Armyand then make him a military governor, 
but neither President Lincoln, nor Andrew 
Johnson, nor anybody else, except Congress 
and the President, had any right to appoint a 
provisional governor. 

Well, sir, he proclaimed amnesty to rebels 
and undertook to carry out his plan of recon- 
struction, bringing them in as rebels. But the 
mission of the Republican party was to pre- 
vent this consummation. The liberal Repub- 
licans joined with the Democrats to a man 
and voted against every measure that we 
adopted here to prevent this foul wrong at- 
tempted to be perpetrated by Andrew John- 
son ; but the great Republican party was 
strong enough then to overcome the Demo- 
cratic party and the liberal Republicans, too, 
and it is strong enough now. 

The liberal Republicans and the Democrats 
have always acted together. You remember 
very well, sir, that in 1862 they undertook all 
over these United States to get up a Union 
Republican party ; that was, a Republican 
party that would be satisfactory to the Democ- 
racy. They tried it in Michigan, and reduced 
our majority from twenty-two thousand down 
to seven tliousand. They tried it in New 
York, and elected Horatio Seymour. They 
tried it in every State ; and had tliey succeeded 
in the three great States of Ohio, Pennsyl- 
vania, and New York, it is my solemn belief 
that this Government would have been over- 
thrown ; but the Lord was on our side, and 
they were not permitted to succeed. They 
elected Seymour in New York, but they failed 
in Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

Now, Mr. President, the RepubUcan party 
carried out faithfully and efficiently and suc- 
cessfully this part of its mission, and to-day 
we have every State in this Union represented 
upon this floor. I am sorry there is not more 
love for the Union in these southern States, 
but they are all restored, and if they see fit to 
behave themselves they will all be treated as 
brethren in this great brotherhood of States. 
But until they do, until they lay down their 
Ku Klux arms as they laid down their muskets 
and their gray uniforms, I for my own part am 
disposed to say, "Stay out; you shall not hold 



9 



oflSce ; you can vote, but we will not permit you 
to hold seats upon this floor, where you will 
misrepresent the views of the loyal men of 
your States." 

Now, Mr. President, as we are going through 
a comparison of the two great political parties, 
and as we have been dared to that comparison, 
I desire to give a few facts and figures in con- 
nection with these two great parties. There 
seems to be an impression on the part of Dem- 
ocrats and liberal Republicans that the masses 
of the people of these United States have 
become so disgusted with the old Republican 
party, with the present Republican party, that 
they are going to rush right into the arms of 
the Democracy, and it is proper to show them 
what that embrace will be when they reach 
there. Let us look a little further into the 
financial condition of the country in 1869 and 
to-day. 

The amount of debt, including accrued in- 
terest and less cash in the Treasury, on the 
1st day of March, 18G9, three days before 
the inauguration of President Grant, was 
$2,525,463,260 01. On the 1st of April, 1871, 
it was $2,309,697,590 27. The reduction of 
the debt during the two years and one month 
from March 1, 1869, to April 1, 1871, was 
$215,763,663 74, a reduction equivalent to 
$8,630,026 55 per month, or $103,567,518 60 
per annum. 

Now, my desire is to give you a very brief 
sketch of the financiering of this Republican 
party, and then I desire to give you a very 
brief sketch of Democratic financiering, with 
which the whole people are supposed to have 
fallen in love. 

I have given the amount of reduction of the 
public debt during the two years and one 
month from March, 1809, to April 1, 1871. 
The figures I am using are official, from the 
books of the Treasury ; but I have not the 
official figures since that date. The amount 
of the debt now is somewhere about 
$2,285,000,000. 

But, sir, this Administration has reduced 
the principal of the debt from March 1, 1869, 
to April 1, 1871, $214,294,406 25. The reduc- 
tion of principal and accrued interest amounts 
to $206,981,406 72. The reduction of princi- 
pal and accrued interest less cash in the Treas- 
ury amountsto $215,760,663 74. The monthly 
charge for interest on the public debt on the 1st 



of March, 1869, was $10,532,402 50 ; on the Ist 
of April, 1871, it was $9,527,212 67. The 
reduction in the monthly charge of interest in 
these twenty-five months is $1,005,249 83; 
and the reduction per annum is consequently 
$12,062,997. 

This reduction of the public debt and conse- 
quent saving of annual interest was, by careful 
and economic administration, effected under 
revenues which had been very largely reduced, 
as I shall proceed to show. Mark you, sir, 
we have not only reduced the debt this enorm- 
ous amount in this brief period of time, but 
we have at the same time reduced the taxes. 
We, the great Republican party, have done 
this, and I propose to boast a little over what 
we have done. I am not going to appear before 
either the bar of public opinion or any other 
bar as a criminal. I arraign the criminals 
before that bar, and I am the prosecutor, and 
not the defendant. 

By the act of July 13, 1866, we reduced our 
taxation $65,000,000 ; by the act of March 
2, 1867, we reduced our taxation $40,000,000; 
by the act of February 3, 1868, we reduced 
taxation $23,000,000 ; by the acts of March 
31 and July 20, 1868, we reduced taxation 
$45,000,000 ; and there was a further reduc- 
tion by the act of July 14, 1870, of internal 
taxes to the amount annually of $55,212,000, 
and of customs duties $23,636,827 33; mak- 
ing in all since July, 1866, that this great 
Republican party has* taken from the annual 
taxation of this land, $251,848,827 33. In 
addition to paying this enormous amount on 
our national debt, we have gone on reducing 
taxation year after year until we have removed 
more than two hundred and fifty million dol- 
lars annirally from our national burdens of 
taxation. In addition to that you will remem- 
ber that we have reduced our annual tax for 
interest by actual payment over a million 
dollars a month, or over twelve million dollars 
a year ; and yet we are to be arraigned by this 
Democratic party for extravagance. 

Now I want the Democrats to look at their 
record. I have shown ours. There has been 
only one place where they could make a record 
that I know of, and that was in the city of New 
York. No one will deny that you have pure, 
unadulterated Democracy there. There is not 
an element of anything else, nor has there been 
for years, in the management of the affairs of 



10 



New York. They have drawn their lines there 
broad and deep. Here is the record : 

"Increase of the Ciiy Debt. — According to the ofQcial 
report of the defendant, Richard B. Connolly, con- 
troller of the city and county of New York, for the 
year ending 31st of December, 1S6S, the funded and 
bonded debt of the city on tlie date upon which said 
defendant, Hall, entered upon his duties as, mayor, 

amounted to $34,746,030 00 

And the funded and bonded debt of the 

county, as evidenced by the same oflS- 

cial report, amounted to 15,882,800 80 

Making together a total of. 150,628,830 80 



"The last official report of said controller was made 
up to the 31st day of July, 1871, and by this report it 
is shown that upon that date the funded and bonded 

debt of said city amounted to $77,914,108 51 

And the funded and bonded debt of 

said county amounted to 35,743,150 00 



Making together a total of. 113,657,2.58 51 

From this deduct the amount of the 
debt of said city and county when the 
defendant, Ilall, became mayor, as 
shown above 50,628,830 80 



The difference is the increase in the 
funded and bonded debt of the city 
and county during the two and a half 
years of the present mayoralty $57,028,427 71 



"In addition to this sum of $57,028,427 71, raised 
upon the bonds of the said city and county, the 
supervisors of the county, in accordance with the 
provisions of the statutes enacted in that behalf, 
(laws of 1869, chapters 875 and 876, and laws of 1870, 
chapters 382 and 383,) levied and raised during each 
of the years 1869 and 1870, by tax upon the estates by 
law subject to taxation within said county, for the 
support of the city and county governments, and to 
pay the quota of said county. of State taxes for each 
of said years, as follows: 

In 1869 $21,309,536 34 

In 1870 23,569,127 71 

Making a total of 44,878,664 05 

There has also been paid into the treas- 
ury of the city and county during 
the years 1869 and 1870, and the first 
six months of 1871, on account of 
assessments collected during said 
years, as the plaintiff is informed and 
believes $12,975,071 09 

And from the general fund, 5.836,657 35 

18,811,728 44 



Total 63,690,392 49 

To this add the increase of the funded 

and bonded debt, as above 57,028,427 71 

And add further the floating debt and 

claims made against the city and 

county, unpaid at this date, which 

together, as the plaintiff is informed 

and believes, exceed 21,000,000 00 



Total $141,718,820 20 

"showing the average expenditure and cost of the 
government of the city and county during the two 



and a half years of the defendant Hall's mayor- 
alty to have been per year $56,627,528 08. or upward 
of five and one half per cent, upon the fixed valua- 
tion of the estates, real and personal, subject to 
taxation in the said county, tue fixed valuation of 
said estates being, according to the report of the 
commissioner of taxes and assessments, for the pres- 
ent year, (1871,) $1,075,009,00.0. 

"So much is known. What the floating and unset- 
tled claims may amount to no man can say. Allow- 
ing the city and county of New York to contain one 
million people, which is considerable more than 
the actual population, and we have an expenditure 
of more than one hundred and forty-seven dollars 
per capita; or for each man, woman, and child, for 
two years and a half of civil government, and no 
extraordinary work of improvement, more than 
fifty-nine dollars a year^er capita for local or muni- 
cipal government. Apply this ratio of expenditure 
to the nation, which would, no doubt, be realized 
if the Democracy should be intrusted with power — 
and estimating the population at forty millions, 
for convenience, and because that is no greater 
ratio of excess than allowed for New York — and 
the national expenditures for one year would exceed 
C2.360,000,000, an amount greater than the present 
national debt, and greater than the expenditures 
of the nation during any year of the war, though at 
times more than a million of men were under arms.' 

Think of it, sir. Allowing the same expend- 
itures under the national Government that have 
been squandered under the Democratic gov- 
ernment of the city of New York, and our 
annual expenses would be $2,360,000,000. 
This is a contrast that I advise gentlemen to 
study before they make up their minds that 
they are going body and soul into the Demo- 
cratic ranks, whether they be liberal or illib- 
eral Republicans. It is worthy of study. I 
could go on to give these outrageous expend- 
itures of the Democracy to an unlimited ex- 
tent, which I will not do because they are 
familiar. I have brought this up as a speci- 
men of Democratic prudence and Democratic 
economy in the only place in the United States 
where the Democratic party has had full swing 
as the Republican party has had in the nation. 

It seems to be the opinion of these Demo- 
crats and liberal Republicans that this exposS 
is going to be so attractive that the whole 
mass of the great Republican party, whose 
mission is not yet ended, is going to rush into 
the embrace of this old Democratic party. I 
tell my honorable friends on the other side 
that they are making a miscalculation. The 
people of this great nation are going to do no 
such thing. Yoii will find here and there 
a sore-headed Republican who will join the 
liberal Republicans, and will join any party 



11 



to break up the great Republican party. Sir, 
we have alwa3'S had just such sore-heads and 
traitors, and in about the same proportionate 
numbers. We have got along very well 
without thorn, and are fully able to meet their 
opposition. 

But I wish to make one honorable exception. 
When the Blair family deliberately made up 
their minds to go into the Democratic ranks — 
I hope my honorable friend from Missouri 
[Mr. Blair] is wilhin the sound of my 
voice — they did not stay in our caucuses and 
grumble ; not a bit of it; but when they made 
up their minds they raised the Blair flag, and 
with drums beating and trumpets sounding 
they marched into the Democratic ranks and 
demanded an instantaneous surrender. The 
Democratic party surrendered, and I think 
it did a wise thing. From ihat day to this 
it has had a head and a tail; the head 
it surrendered to, but the tail was the 
Tammany ring. [Laughter.] One furnished 
the brains and the other the money ; but inas- 
much as the money supply is cut off, I 
must tell my Democratic friends they 
will miss that supplj^ more than they would 
the other. From that day to this we have 
been furnishing recruits for the Democratic 
party. 

I do not want our Democratic friends to be 
discouraged. We are bound to furnish them 
with a candidate for the Presidency. They 
shall not dissolve their party for the want of a 
candidate. If we have not a candidate that is 
satisfactory to gentlemen on the other side in 
the Senate, we will go outside of the Senate. 
You shall have a candidate, and a Republican 



candidate, too ; and your experience has been 
so joyous, you have had such eminent success 
with your Republican nominees, that my im- 
pression is that you had better keep up the 
practice. For every sore-headed Republican 
that you have taken into your ranks we have 
taken a hundred live Democrats into ours, 
and we are willing to keep up the swapping. 
[Laughter.] It has been so every year since 
the breaking out of the rebellion, and it will 
continue to be so. We want you to take one 
or all of our disaffected Republicans, and we 
will take a hundred Democrats to fill their 
places. Now, do not hesitate at one. If you 
want more than one, take two; if you want 
more than two, take three ; take them all. Do 
not be discouraged for lack of a presidential 
candidate. We are liberal. We are disposed 
to do the liberal thing by you. Pick out your 
man and we will sav " God speed you." In the 
mean time we will bring up this Democratic 
record of yours beside the old Republican rec- 
ord, and we will take all the young Democrats 
who are now coming on the stage of life, and 
you can take all the sore-heads from the Repub- 
lican party, and we will keep trading. I do 
not believe you v/ill make any more by that 
trade than we will; but if you think you can, 
I bid you God speed, in the mean time, how- 
ever, if you will follow my advice, and no 
doubt my advice will have great weight with 
our Democratic friends, you will never again 
bring up a comparison between the old Dem- 
ocratic party that started and carried on the 
rebellion and the great live Republican party 
that crushed the rebellion and now maintains 
its living issues. 



Printed at the Office of the Congressional Globe. 



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